John Prine would have turned 79 years old on Oct. 10. To celebrate his life and legacy, we joined Prine’s widow Fiona Whelan Prine and country music legend Carlene Carter at one the late songwriter’s favorite Nashville haunts: Brown’s Diner.

Tucked into a booth in the dining room, Fiona Prine and Carter recount the creation of Prine’s 1995 Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings album, which was recently reissued as a 30th anniversary edition via Prine’s Oh Boy Records label. Carter, who was dating the album’s producer, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ bassist Howie Epstein, at the time, sang on the album and was there for all its twists and turns.

“There was always a twist, you would think he was going to a certain word and it’d be a completely different word,” Carter says. “I just wanted to c

See Full Page